The third industrial revolution has begun

When we sit on the cusp of a new method of production, one that moves us beyond the production line and returns us to a bygone era of artisans, bespoke, custom-made innovation and production, then it becomes necessary to re-frame the way we think about the way we create, own, distribute and have.

In this weeks’ on-air chat with David Dowsett of ABC radio we turned our attention to the recent announcement by St Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne that within 5 years they would begin trialling 3D printing of human body organs and that within 10 years printing of human spare parts may become “normal”.

This technology has been on the rise for a number of decades but technology, culture and medical advancements are all conspiring to make this the time that science fiction starts to turn into science fact.

3D printers will, over the next decade, evolve to print cars, homes and buildings, food, clothes, furniture and so much more as we begin to “manufacture” items in situ in real-time at our shops, factory’s, hospitals, homes and wherever we need to produce or have an “object”.

The world of innovation, manufacturing, global citizen equity and the ability to “have” will all be challenged as we see industry’s emerge, industry’s disappear and billionaires created in this brave new world.

Have a listen to the live recording and then let me know your thoughts on the new world of 3D printing:

Noodle making robots

Robots have long been the stuff of science fiction and many of us have grown up waiting for the day when our dreams might turn into technological reality.

In this morning’s regular look ahead David Dowsett of radio ABC and I took a look at robots and discovered that they are already here.

Telemedicine robots allows Doctors to virtually jump inside a moving mechanical device and transport themselves around hospitals and clinics engaging and treating patients along the way. Robotic surgeons use their robotic arms to accurately guide and oversee complex operations often in tandem with skilled physical physician hands. Nano robots are routinely swallowed into our body and then guided around to take internal x-rays and photographs. Robotic limbs replace lost, degenerated and non-existent limbs, as well as provide heart pumps and other life-giving robotically controlled devices.

In our offices and factory’s we see the increased use of teleworkers using robotic Segway like devices that allow executives to be in two places at once by jumping on-board a telerobot and riding it virtually around far away offices to attend board meeting in one country without ever having to leave the comforts of their own offices. Many of these devices cost no more than $250 and use PC tablets mounted on robotic shoulders and free software to see and connect you.

On our roads we can expect to see a fleet of driverless cars who know where you need to be and when, have real-time updates of the road conditions ahead and will chauffeur you to your destination in comfort and safety.

Robots are also entering the hospitality industry as noodle makers, hamburger flippers and sous chefs and in retail as clerks and sales assistants.

Robots as anthropomorphic, high functioning, independently thinking, self replicating humanoid machines are still a long way off. In theory they appear to be easy to create, but in reality are still beyond the ready boundaries of our capabilities and technologies.

There is much work being done in robotics and the most recent catalyst of this is the growth and convergence of big data, mobile technologies, changing culture and a growing appetite for robot like devices together with a practical and pragmatic future need to overcome a growing chronic shortage of workers in some industry’s.

For now, and the immediate future, we will have to contend ourselves with robots and mechanical devices that provide assistance with life and works more mundane and repetitive tasks.

Robots when they do arrive will bring with them many challenges. They will start and stop careers, industry’s and jobs. They will require us to grapple with the ethics and rights of robots and humans and make decisions that we have never had to make before as we learn to co-exist with machines.

The time to start these debates is now, for we are truly on the precipice of when not if as science fiction turns daily to robotic science fact.

Have a listen to the segment now…

Happy 40th Birthday Mobile Phone

Forty years ago we took a giant leap into digital space and untethered by wires made the first mobile or cell phone call.

Today Australia boasts nearly 30 million mobile SIM cards for a population of almost 23 million and 60% of the entire worlds population has, or has access to, a mobile phone.

In developing nations the mobile has allowed people to skip the wired computer that they were likely never to have gotten and instead turn immediately to the mobile phone for health, banking, communication and so much more.

We have come so far in the last 40 years, changed our belief and understanding of the world and our place in it that it is often difficult to remember life before this magic little mobile box, but this week David Dowsett of Radio ABC Wide Bay and I took a nostalgic look at mobile phones and a futurist glance at where their headed.

Your mother’s right, it’s good to share

There is a digital and burgeoning offline movement towards working together and sharing resources, rather than doing it all and owning it all and three (3) of the major movements in this new non-ownership meme are known as collaboration, co creation and the sharing economy.

In this week’s on-air discussion David Dowsett of ABC radio Wide Bay and I take a look at how to have “stuff” without owning it, or how to get more use and profit out of “stuff’ you own but aren’t using to its full capacity

It is not a communist or hippie throwback, but rather a twist on doing, having, renting and borrowing.

We took a quick tour through some websites and apps that collaboratively design t-shirts, jewellery, cars, solve scientific conundrums, seek funding for inventions, borrow homes, find local people to guide you around tourist destinations, short-term usage of people’s cars, borrow their dogs, rent space in their garages and homes and many other things you might need, but don’t want to own.

This collaborative mindset is also spreading itself into boardroom thinking by not only influencing resource ownership, but also in opening the possibility to co-creating products, services and business activities.

Take a listen now…

What do the Future of Aged Care and Media have in Common?

The answer is not much, but a trip to the Gold Coast is never complete without a chat to Nicole Dyer on ABC FM and the Future of Media and Aged Care were her two topics of choice.

The notion of who creates, curates, disseminates and comments on news was our main theme, as was a discussion on newspapers and their longevity.

My take on daily newspapers is that they will become increasingly irrelevant over the next few years and continue to lose readership and eventually disappear as people see that the news they sell is out of date before its even printed.

Weekend newspapers however will fare better, as people see their weekend read as an oasis on their days off, one that allows them to unwind and catch up with the world.

We also turned our attention to Aged Care in the Future (the reason for my visit to the Gold Coast was to deliver a keynote on the Future of the Aged Care Industry) and the question of how we are going to find the number of carers we will soon need in this industry given our aging population and will robots and technology including magic carpets be part of the solution.

Have a listen to this segment…

Is our brain turning into porridge?

In 1436 Gutenberg was accused of inventing an object that would eventually turn our brains into porridge – the good old printing press. The same accusation a made of radio, television, video and the cinema.

It seems that whenever we innovate or invent our communication tools many people see it as a step too far and the end of civilization as we know it.

Today is no different as we trade in and trade up our communication tools and shift many of them online. One of the fundamental shifts is that we have democratized information and news and moved it into the hands of the individual.

It is now possible to source and proffer news in an endless list of niche subjects. It is possible to have a first hand view of the world’s major and minor moments, presented not by a corporate spokesperson, but rather an individual that happens to be walking by with their mobile phone.

I love these two shots of the new Pope’s announcement, the first is Pope Benedict XVI’s in April 2005 and the second is Pope Francis earlier this year.

Take a look at both and spot the difference. In Pope Benedict XVI’s there are very few mobile phones recording the ceremony, but in Pope Francis’s announcement the crowd is full of smart phones recording and sharing the news in real-time.

The Future of the Media is this week’s chat between David Dowsett of ABC radio Wide Bay and I as we ask are newspapers dead, is printed news a dinosaur, what constitutes news, who creates it, who communicates it and what do people expect and want from news and information sources.

Take a listen now and let me know how you see the future of media.

So, what’s new?

I love this question, it’s so open-ended and can lead to such a great discussion and that’s exactly what my friend Jason Jordan and I did last night on one of our regular catchup’s on radio 6PR’s Weeknight’s program.

We took a look at smart televisions, what they are, why they are and is it worth buying one. We then moved on to second screening which is the growing phenomenon of watching one screen (usually your television) and having a second screen (usually your phone or tablet) in your hand.

Google glasses and the rumored Apple iWatch also got some discussion as did the role and impact of technology in culture and society.

A great chat and well worth a listen and after you have, let me know what you think are the big trends, gadgets and technologies ahead.

Is the Future of Media compact not tabloid?

With Fairfax taking The Age to a smaller more compact size toady, they don’t like you calling it tabloid, it prompted Belinda King of Radio ABC Tasmania to ask the question What is the future of newspapers and the media?

We chatted about the notion that the core of what people want is information, knowledge and wisdom and that 100′s of years ago the rise in literacy moved us from receiving this orally from the church pulpit and travelers to reading about it in newspapers.

Today we still want to “know”, but our habits and technology are different.

We want to be a part of the news, we want to know immediately something has happened and see it first hand and even report and comment on ourselves.

The static one-way communication that newspapers of old delivered their insights doesn’t offer this, but digital can.

So really the question becomes how do we re-purpose our news gathering and disseminating infrastructure to better deliver on customer expectations – an innovation opportunity every industry is coming to terms with.

Have a listen now and then make the news yourself and share how you see the future of media.

What do Ned Kelly, Al Capone and digital wallets all have in common?

Up to this morning’s interview with Celine Foenander on ABC Local I would have said nothing, but one of the recurring questions I get asked around digital wallets is how secure they are?

The answer is very secure, because it’s in the interest of the banks and credit card providers to make it as secure as possible, but of course as secure as they make it, there will always be someone who will try to outsmart them, just like Ned Kelly and Al Capone.

We soon turned our attention to the digital wallet future; migrating our physical cards, licences, passports, airline tickets and other stuff on to our mobile phones;what and how we will use this new technology for in the very near future and whether physical cash is becoming extinct.

Another plus with this interview is that Celine thinks I’m funny, not strange funny, but ha ha funny – go figure!

Anyway, have a listen and let me know your thoughts on digital wallets, less cash society’s and whether you think you think you’ll use it or not.

Listen now:

Technology is taking over our lives

I got a call this morning from Steve Mills host of Perth’s 6PR breakfast show about a recent study that concluded that people fear that in 80 years we will have lost all human interaction and instead will be tethered hypnotically and blindly to a computer, or whatever technology becomes or is called by then.

OK, my first reaction, is step slowly away from the ledge and hide all the sharp instruments.

Do we really have so little faith in the human race that we buy all this sci fi doom and gloom scare mongering?

We have survived for millenniums and have never melded with machines before and it’s fairly safe that we won’t in the next 80 years.

The line between human and machine blurred many years ago, with every medical and scientific advancement we ever made including hearing aids, pacemakers, bionic ears and human implants, but we survive and are clearly still human.

People let’s give us some credit!

We are social, gregarious community oriented animals, who rely on each other to survive and thrive and even in our countless attempts to change and reshape human lives and society we keep reverting back to type.

Social media is a prime example of how we have been told that society as we know it has ended and with the advent of Facebook, Twitter, SMS, mobile phones, Skype and so many other on line rabble rouses we no longer have the need to physically meet one another.

This has never been more untrue, we statistically connect with each other more than we ever have before. Is it the same communication? NO. Is it better or worse? That’s the debate.

Let’s temper this debate though with the memory that nearly every form of technology that we have ever invented or innovated including Gutenberg press, radio and TV were all seen as the devils child in their formative years.

The good old days were rarely that good.

Time tends to diminish the emotion and angst we felt and instead leaves us with two dimensional memories safely preserved and packaged for all time as truths.

The future has not been written, these prophetic insights are not mandated.

The future can only be created in our hearts, souls and minds, so instead of invoking the worst outcomes let’s plan instead for a far more harmonious future, one in which we use our advancements to eradicate social injustices, we learn to tame and cure diseases and continue to remain vigilant about the the boundary’s between man and machine.

Now I’ll get off my soap box, let you have a listen to my far shorter on-air response and look out for your thoughts on how you see the next 80 years and beyond.